


won't you stay till the a.m.?

by cathedralhearts



Category: Hit the Floor (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 21:38:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6211108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cathedralhearts/pseuds/cathedralhearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First it was the car.</p><p>“Dark and tortured, like your soul,” Zero had said, squinting up at Jude in the bright L.A. sunshine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	won't you stay till the a.m.?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I've managed to spam the whole show in like, two days and I can't even muster up the urge to be embarrassed about it. I haven't written fic in a while and I'm still trying to figure out the characterisation for these two-- James, give them more screen time, dammnit!-- but I was feeling good and ready to post, so. Yay!

\--

 

First it was the car.

“Dark and tortured, like your soul,” Zero had said, squinting up at Jude in the bright L.A. sunshine.

Jude ignored the comment, snappy and sarcastic like they usually were from his client, and had slid into the plush leather seats, wanting to moan at the perfect feel on his back.

Whilst Oscar had money-- god, did he have money-- and Jude had grown up in an opulent house in Calabasas and sent to the best private schools money could buy, Zero had come from nothing. It made Jude feel guilty about taking the Porsche.

It was stupid, of course; Jude knew exactly how much Zero was making-- junior agent or not, he got oversight of all of that. But knowing as little of Zero’s background as he did, it was still enough to stir _something_ deep inside him. Something that tucked nearby his heart, nestled deep and worryingly strong.

“Wanna go for a drive?” he said instead, running his hands along the wheel of the car. Zero just laughed, settling back in the passenger’s seat for Jude to take control.

 

*

 

Then it was the phone.

Jude was rushing from a meeting between Lionel and some senior Devils staffers, and bumped into one of the EA’s, his iPhone slipping from between his fingers and smashing against the floor.

“Fuck!” he yelped, banging heads with the EA as they both bent over at the same time.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” the EA exclaimed, as Jude rubbed his head and stood up.

“It’s alright-- how’s my cellphone?” he asked, as the EA winced and handed it over. Jude groaned.

The front was completely cracked, splintered and miserable.

“I--I can try and pay for a replacement…” the EA started. Jude shook his head.

“No, my warranty should cover it, it’s fine,” he said, waving off further apologies and heading toward his office.

Twenty frustrating minutes later, he slammed down the office phone and contemplated throwing the paperweight at the wall. He had just picked it up, about to hurl it at a framed picture of the Devils, when Zero appeared at the doorway. His towel was slung around his sweaty shoulders, still in his practise gear.

“Woah, I came at a good time,” Zero drawled, wandering in as he towelled down his face.

Jude made a face. “I broke my phone,” he said, waving a hand at the ruined cell phone on his desk.

Zero peered over at it, and rolled his eyes. “Nice work, Jude,” he sighed, sliding down into a seat in front of the desk.

Jude had only just recently become Zero’s full time agent, taking on Derek too, and he was sharing an office with some of the other agents for the ballers at the stadium.

He had also just recently started sleeping with Zero-- which was a completely different issue. However, it was making it extremely hard not to notice Zero’s collarbones as his jersey slipped down, the expanse of skin so tantalising. He swallowed heavily and coughed, averting his eyes. Getting a boner at work was not high on his list of acceptable things to ever happen.

Zero had started bitching about practise, and Terrance not getting the ball to him enough, before conversation turned to dinner.

“I’m feeling bad, wanna get In-N-Out?” Zero asked. Jude frowned. He knew the right thing to do was tell Zero to order a steak and salad, but the idea of hanging out with him outside of work was, well. Enough to be bad as well.

“Sure,” he said, and frowned down at his phone. “After I fix this piece of shit.”

Zero laughed, hauling himself up and walking back out, saying he’d pick Jude up from his house at seven.

Going to the Apple Store during peak traffic on a Tuesday was exhausting, so Jude decided to go home instead, enjoying the drive in his stupidly expensive gift from Zero.

By the time seven rolled around, Jude had forgotten about his phone, wrapped up in the latest Game of Thrones episode, and barely even noticed when Zero walked in, a bag dangling from his fingers.

“Hello?” Zero said, waving his fingers in front of Jude’s face, laughing as Jude startled and smacked him with a pillow.

“Jesus, knock why don’t you!” he snapped, pausing the TV and looking up at Zero.

“I did-- five times!” Zero said, tossing the bag at Jude and heading into the kitchen.

“What’s this?” Jude asked, following Zero. Zero just winked, reaching into the fridge and bringing out a bottle of IPA.

He pulled a box out of the bag, and sure enough…

“Zero, what…” Jude spluttered, a brand new iPhone in his hands.

“Can’t have my top agent out of contact, now can I?” Zero said, taking a pull on his bottle. Jude looked down at the phone. It was the same as Zero’s, and gold as well.

“Gold, really?” he said, at a loss to say anything else. Zero shrugged.

“Money. Now c’mon, I want burgers.”

Jude watched as Zero grabbed his car keys from the bowl near the front door, throwing, “I’m gonna leave without you!” over his shoulder as he stepped over the threshold.

Jude just looked down at the phone, wondering what the fuck this meant. Wondering why his heart was beating just a little too hard for comfort.

 

*

 

Then it was the fittings for new game day suits. Zero had decided his suits were whack, and wanted a whole new slew of them to see him through the rest of the season. Jude just _had_ to come along-- because apparently Zero was a massive whore for compliments and platitudes.

After the fifth suit-- a bespoke, slimming number that made Jude want to bang his head against the wall, Jude decided enough was enough.

“Oh no. Paolo, my man, my agent needs some new threads. He’s embarrassing me in this black thing, like he’s going to my funeral. Think you can hook him up?” Zero said, flashing a smile at the tailor and grabbing for Jude’s arm.

“Of course, Mr. Zero,” Paolo said, and with surprising strength for such a frail looking old man, pulled Jude up onto the stand and started measuring his inseam.

“Zero, my suits are _fine_ \--” Jude protested, frowning as Zero pulled out a houndstooth pattern. “And no way in hell am I ever wearing that!”

 

\--

 

An hour later, Jude walked out in a daze as Zero dropped over $75,000 paying for their clothes and alterations.

“That was so much money,” Jude said, blinking in the hot sunshine. Zero just slipped on his shades and knuckled Jude in the ribs.

“I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.” As if that somehow justified what he just did.

“I didn’t need new suits,” Jude said, following Zero down the street, hoping they wouldn’t get swarmed by fans that day. Zero just shrugged, his hands in his pockets and an easy smile on his face.

“Not like I got anything else to spend my money on,” he shrugged.

Jude inhaled, indignant at being a charity case-- just because he didn’t make the staggering figures Zero made, didn’t mean he was _destitute_ \-- but was cut off as a group of guys noticed Zero and started losing their shit.

“Oh my god, Zero, oh man, can we get a photo?”

Jude had to take the picture, of course. Zero just laughed, the entire time.

 

*

 

It started to add up over time, even after Jude became EVP and their relationship actually became something in the ruins of the nothing it crashed and burned into. Zero hardly ever went home, his clothes bursting out of Jude’s wardrobes, his sneakers littering up Jude’s front entrance, and his IPA and protein shakes cluttering Jude’s fridge.

Jude wasn’t bothered-- it was a nice change to coming home alone. He wouldn’t miss that part. It was hard enough every time Zero went on the road and he had to sleep by himself, his bed seeming that much larger without him.

Zero paid for basically everything, Jude could count on one hand the amount of times Zero let him get the bill, and he’d _tried_ getting mad at Zero about it. God, had he tried. Zero just had a way of disarming him, shrugging and looking bashful, spouting something about investing right and using the rest of his money to play with.

Something niggled at Jude, though. Something didn’t quite make sense.

It all came to a head when he came home one afternoon to find a letter from his landlord, announcing his intentions to sell the house Jude rented.

“Gross, I’m gonna have to look for somewhere new to live now,” Jude groaned, flopping down on the couch. It’d been a long day, trying to help Lionel manage the club and deal with all the drama around Sloane’s arrest and avoiding Oscar. The last thing he needed was to have to deal with househunting, _fuck_.

Zero had just shrugged, flicking through Sportsnet. “Something’ll work out,” he’d said, vaguely. Jude just yawned and pulled off his tie, slumping into Zero’s side. A nap sounded like a good idea; he’d get dinner organised later.

 

\--

 

He should’ve realised something was up when a week passed without a call from his agent to enquire about the kind of new places he wanted to look at. It felt like everything that had happened between them was beginning to build into some sort of crescendo, but Jude wasn’t focussed enough to put all the puzzle pieces together and make the bigger picture.

 

\--

 

Grabbing the mail from his mailbox, he saw Zero’s car parked in his driveway and grinned. He must’ve just gotten back from his trip to New York-- which meant _yay, you’re back!_ sex.

Zero was sitting on the couch in pajamas, his hair sleep tousled and soft from a shower, looking so fucking inviting that Jude barely had time to put the mail on his counter and shrug off his suit jacket before he was straddling Zero’s lap and kissing him like he was dying of thirst.

“Hello to you too,” Zero rumbled, laughing against Jude’s mouth.

“Fuck, I’ve missed you,” Jude breathed, diving in, desperate to taste more. Zero’s fingers tightened on Jude’s hips… and then he was moving Jude off him?

“You should check your mail, there might be something important in there,” Zero said with a wink, flicking the television back on.

Confused, Jude did as he was told, getting back up and flicking through his mail.

“The fuck is this…” he muttered, noticing a thick, official looking envelope. Opening it, his eyes widened to the point of feeling like they were going to pop out his head.

“Zero, what the hell have you done.” It wasn’t even a question. Jude looked up from the deed-- the deed to the house he was standing in, which was apparently now 100% owned by him. Zero was biting his lip.

“Surprise?”

Jude punched him in the arm. “Zero! This house is worth like, $2 million dollars. Why would you even _do_ that?”

Zero frowned, rubbing his arm, before shrugging. “I just… you love this place. And so do I. It’s comfortable, and it’s easy… and now it’s yours. Happy early Hanukkah or something.”

“That’s not how it works. Zero, this is so… I can’t accept this. It’s too… too big,” Jude gasped, sitting down. And it was. Zero had just bought him a fucking house.

Zero sat down next to him, and squeezed his knee.

“To be honest, I was kind of being selfish about it. I like being here. I don’t like change that much, alright, and I just… this is where all this great stuff happened with us. We became… a thing here. We live here. I mean, I just… if it’s too much, I can try and--”

“Zero-- _Gideon_. You’re… you’re amazing.” Jude’s fingers wrapped around his wrist, squeezing. He wasn’t sure he knew how to say everything he was feeling, and not sure Zero would even know how to take it all.

“I love you, Jude. I want this to be our place. We’re out, and this is… this is us, y’know?”

Jude leant in, kissing Zero as deeply as he could, trying to get everything he was feeling, all his hopes and dreams for them together, all the love flowing through his veins… it was all he could do to hang on and hope he didn’t burst.

“I love you, and thank you, so much. This is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” Jude said, his voice thick with emotion.

Zero just smiled back, something real and heartbreakingly sweet.

“This means I’m getting dinner for the rest of forever, though. I mean it!” Jude added on.

Zero just dissolved into laughter, pulling Jude back in, kissing him, deep and all encompassing.


End file.
